1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicular control object determination system that includes an object detector capable of detecting a plurality of objects that are present in the direction of travel of a vehicle, and a control object determiner for determining an object, as a control object for a subject vehicle, based on a detection result obtained by the object detector. Also, the present invention relates to a vehicle control system that includes the above-described vehicular control object determination system.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-191876 discloses an arrangement in which, among objects detected by a vehicle-mounted radar device, stationary objects such as an object dropped on a road are extracted; among them, objects for which dispersion of the reception level of reflected waves in a region where the relative distance is 20 m to 100 m is equal to or less than a first threshold value are extracted; among them, objects that are on a predicted route of a subject vehicle are extracted; and among them, an object for which a reduction percentage in the reception level, in a region where the relative distance is on the order of 10 m to 20 m, is equal to or greater than a second threshold value and the reception level is equal to or less than a third threshold value is determined to be an object that can be passed over without problem, thus stopping or moderating execution of an alarm or automatic braking which would otherwise make a driver feel uncomfortable.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional arrangement, since the determination is carried out based on the reception level of waves reflected from an object, the reception level of reflected waves varies depending on the shape and material of the object, thus causing the problem that the determination accuracy is degraded. Furthermore, when an object is present in the vicinity of a point at which the road surface grade changes, this produces a change in the effect of waves reflected from the road surface, leading to a problem of deterioration of determination accuracy.